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Wed, November 26, 2008 11:33:13 PMFrom:
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[Slashdot] Stories for 2008-11-27
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Slashdot Daily Newsletter
In this issue:
* 90% of Gaming Addiction Patients Not Addicted
* At Atlantic Records, Digital Sales Surpass CDs
* Sending Secret Messages Via Google's SearchWiki
* Rewriting a Software Product After Quitting a Job?
* The State of UK Broadband — Not So Fast
* Evolving Rocks
* IBM's But-I-Only-Got-The-Soup Patent
* Apple Sued Over iPhone Browser
* Robots Debut In Japanese Theater Production
* Gaming In Sweden Bigger Than Football and Hockey
* jQuery in Action
* Houses With Tails
* Massive Botnet Returns From the Dead To Spam On
* Lori Drew Trial Results In 3 Misdemeanor Convictions
* Earliest LHC Restart Slated For Late Summer 2009
* Blockbuster's Movie Download Box Runs Linux
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| 90% of Gaming Addiction Patients Not Addicted |
| from the don't-worry-i'm-sure-you're-in-the-other-10% dept. |
| posted by Soulskill on Tuesday November 25, @20:05 (The Media) |
| http://games.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/11/26/0038255 |
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[0]phorm writes "BBC is carrying an article which states that [1]90% of
visitors to Europe's 'video game addiction clinic' are not, in fact,
addicted. The problem is a social one rather than a psychological issue.
In other words, the patients have turned to heavy gaming because they
felt they didn't fit in elsewhere, or that they fit in better 'in the
game' than elsewhere in 'the real world.' This has been discussed before,
with arguments ranging from gaming being [2]a good way to socialize, the
clinical [3]definition of gaming addiction, and claims than males are
[4]wired for video-game addiction."
Discuss this story at:
http://games.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=08/11/26/0038255
Links:
0. http://www.getoffamylawn.com/forum/
1. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7746471.stm
2. http://games.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/11/20/1755213&tid=267
3. http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/11/10/196234&tid=95
4. http://games.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/02/07/1433243&tid=146
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| At Atlantic Records, Digital Sales Surpass CDs |
| from the trading-analog-dollars-for-digital-pennies dept. |
| posted by kdawson on Tuesday November 25, @22:20 (Music) |
| http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/11/26/012230 |
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The NYTimes reports that Atlantic is the first major label to report
getting a [0]majority of its revenue from digital sales, not CDs.
Analysts say that Atlantic is out in front ?€? the industry as a whole
isn't expected to hit the 50% mark until 2011. By 2013, music industry
revenues will be 37% down from their 1999 levels (when Napster arrived on
the scene), according to Forrester. "'It's not at all clear that digital
economics can make up for the drop in physical,' said John Rose, a former
executive at EMI ... Instead, the music industry is now hoping to find
growth from a variety of other revenue streams it has not always had
access to, like concert ticket sales and merchandise from artist tours.
... In virtually all... corners of the media world, executives are
fighting to hold onto as much of their old business as possible while
transitioning to digital ?€? a difficult process that NBC Universal's chief
executive ... has described as 'trading analog dollars for digital
pennies.'"
Discuss this story at:
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=08/11/26/012230
Links:
0. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/26/business/media/26music.html?partner=rss
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| Sending Secret Messages Via Google's SearchWiki |
| from the your-mission-should-you-choose-to-accept-it dept. |
| posted by kdawson on Wednesday November 26, @00:23 (Google) |
| http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/11/26/0424250 |
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We discussed the advent of Google's [0]SearchWiki when it was introduced
a few days back. Now Lauren Weinstein offers a thought experiment in
[1]transmitting coded messages using SearchWiki, with a working example
encoded into the results of [2]this Google search.
Discuss this story at:
http://tech.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=08/11/26/0424250
Links:
0. http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/11/23/0438204&tid=217
1. http://lauren.vortex.com/archive/000476.html
2. http://www.google.com/search?q=orthogonal+terwilliger+accordion
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| Rewriting a Software Product After Quitting a Job? |
| from the clean-room-white-coats dept. |
| posted by kdawson on Wednesday November 26, @02:57 (Patents) |
| http://ask.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/11/25/2343235 |
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hi_caramba_2008 writes "We are a bunch of good friends at a large
software company. The product we work on is under-budgeted and over-hyped
by the sales drones. The code quality sucks, and management keeps pulling
in different direction. Discussing this among ourselves, we talked about
leaving the company and rebuilding the code from scratch over a few
months. We are not taking any code with us. We are not taking customer
lists (we probably will aim at different customers anyway). The code
architecture will also be different ?€? hosted vs. stand-alone, different
modules and APIs. But at the feature level, we will imitate this product.
Can we be sued for IP infringement, theft, or whatever? Are workers
allowed to imitate the product they were working on? We know we have to
deal with the non-compete clause in our employment contracts, but in our
state this clause has been very difficult to enforce. We are more
concerned with other IP legal aspects."
Discuss this story at:
http://ask.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=08/11/25/2343235
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| The State of UK Broadband — Not So Fast |
| from the but-you-have-actual-competition dept. |
| posted by kdawson on Wednesday November 26, @05:29 (Communication|
| http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/11/25/2356218 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
[0]Barence writes "The deplorable speed of British broadband connections
has been revealed in the latest figures from the Office of National
Statistics, which show that [1]42.3% of broadband connections are slower
than 2Mb/sec. More worryingly, the ONS statistics are based on the
connection's headline speed, not actual throughput, which means that many
more British broadband connections are effectively below the 2Mb/sec
barrier. Better still, a separate report issued yesterday by Ofcom
revealed that the majority of broadband users had no idea about the speed
of their connection anyway."
Discuss this story at:
http://tech.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=08/11/25/2356218
Links:
0. http://www.pcpro.co.uk/
1. http://www.pcpro.co.uk/news/239187/revealed-the-shocking-state-of-british-broadband.html
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Evolving Rocks |
| from the survival-of-the-firmest dept. |
| posted by kdawson on Wednesday November 26, @08:02 (Earth) |
| http://news.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/11/25/2210222 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
[0]SpaceAdmiral notes a new study making the [1]claim that rocks have
been evolving throughout Earth's history. "'Mineral evolution is
obviously different from Darwinian evolution ?€? minerals don't mutate,
reproduce or compete like living organisms,' said Hazen in a statement
announcing the study's findings. 'But we found both the variety and
relative abundances of minerals have changed dramatically over more than
4.5 billion years of Earth's history. For at least 2.5 billion years, and
possibly since the emergence of life, Earth's mineralogy has evolved in
parallel with biology,' Hazen added. 'One implication of this finding is
that remote observations of the mineralogy of other moons and p***ts may
provide crucial evidence for biological influences beyond Earth.'"
Discuss this story at:
http://news.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=08/11/25/2210222
Links:
0. http://www.fanehenderson.com/
1. http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/story.html?id=839b3ae1-264a-4e61-a6f5-d464d5f0f923
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| IBM's But-I-Only-Got-The-Soup Patent |
| from the next-they-patent-blue dept. |
| posted by CmdrTaco on Wednesday November 26, @09:02 (Patents) |
| http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/11/26/1352257 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
[0]theodp writes "In an [1]Onion-worthy move, the USPTO has decided that
IBM inventors deserve a patent for [2]splitting a restaurant bill. Ending
an 8+ year battle with the USPTO, [3]self-anointed patent system savior
IBM got a less-than-impressed USPTO Examiner's final rejection overruled
in June and snagged US Patent No. 7,457,767 Tuesday for its [4]Pay at the
Table System. From the patent: 'Though US Pat. No. 5,933,812 to Meyer, et
al. discussed previously provides for an entire table of patrons to pay
the total bill using a credit card, including the gratuity, it does not
provide an ability for the check to be split among the various patrons,
and for those individual patrons to then pay their desired portion of the
bill. This deficiency is addressed by the present invention.'"
Discuss this story at:
http://yro.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=08/11/26/1352257
Links:
0. mailto:theodp@aol.com
1. http://www.theonion.com/content/node/52324
2. http://mindyourdecisions.com/blog/2008/01/29/game-theory-tuesdays-dividing-a-restaurant-bill/
3. http://www-03.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/20325.wss
4. http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?patentnumber=7,457,767
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Apple Sued Over iPhone Browser |
| from the just-this-once-then dept. |
| posted by CmdrTaco on Wednesday November 26, @09:49 (Patents) |
| http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/11/26/141220 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
SpuriousLogic writes "A Los Angeles real estate developer is [0]suing
Apple for patent infringement over the way the iPhone navigates Web
sites. The suit, which was filed on behalf of EMG Technology, seeks
unspecified damages. EMG Technology is a company that holds the patents
of Elliot Gottfurcht, the real estate developer, as well as Marlo
Longstreet and Grant Gottfurcht. The company claims that the iPhone
infringes on patent 7,441,196 ?€? a patent that was approved only last
month, after a filing process that began on March 13, 2006. That patent
is for an invention that displays 'on-line content reformatted from a
webpage in a hypertext markup language (HTML) format into an extensible
markup language (XML) format to generate a sister site.' This sister site
is a simplified version of the original site that is then displayed on
any number of devices ?€? including cell phones, EMG says."
Discuss this story at:
http://yro.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=08/11/26/141220
Links:
0. http://www.pcworld.com/article/154491/apple_sued_over_iphone_browser.html
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Robots Debut In Japanese Theater Production |
| from the first-the-auto-industry-now-our-actors dept. |
| posted by CmdrTaco on Wednesday November 26, @10:43 (Robotics) |
| http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/11/26/1453258 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
An anonymous reader writes "BBC News and CNET Cutting Edge are reporting
on a new play starring at Osaka University, in which two [0]Mitsubishi
Wakamaru [1]robots interact with human actors [2]and move around the
stage. Named 'Hataraku Watashi' ('I, Worker'), the play is authored by
[3]Oriza Hirata, a renowned playwright. It focuses on a robot who
complains about his boring and demeaning jobs."
Discuss this story at:
http://hardware.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=08/11/26/1453258
Links:
0. http://www.mhi.co.jp/kobe/wakamaru/english/
1. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7749932.stm
2. http://news.cnet.com/8300-11386_3-76.html
3. http://www.performingarts.jp/E/art_interview/0703/1.html
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Gaming In Sweden Bigger Than Football and Hockey |
| from the second-only-to-bikini-teaming dept. |
| posted by CmdrTaco on Wednesday November 26, @11:37 (PC Games (Ga|
| http://games.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/11/26/1458223 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
An anonymous reader writes "SIFO (a major Swedish survey company) has
conducted a gaming survey right before the launch of [0]Dreamhack Winter.
One of the results is that [1]gaming is bigger than football and hockey
combined."
Discuss this story at:
http://games.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=08/11/26/1458223
Links:
0. http://www.dreamhack.se/dhw08/facts.php?id=1
1. http://www.sk-gaming.com/content/20136-Gaming_in_Sweden_bigger_than_football_and_hockey
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| jQuery in Action |
| from the read-all-about-it dept. |
| posted by samzenpus on Wednesday November 26, @12:48 (Programming|
| http://books.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/11/26/1414236 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
[0]Michael J. Ross writes "As perhaps the only substantial computer
language embedded inside of the major Web browsers, JavaScript has
brought an unprecedented level of power to client-side programming for
the Internet. Yet as a result of cross-browser incompatibilities and
other problems, it has probably also resulted in an unprecedented number
of headaches for Web developers. JavaScript libraries attempt to mitigate
much of these difficulties. One of the most popular such libraries,
jQuery, is explored in a book by Bear Bibeault and Yehuda Katz, titled
jQuery in Action." Keep reading for the rest of Michael's review.
This story continues at:
http://books.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/11/26/1414236
Discuss this story at:
http://books.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=08/11/26/1414236
Links:
0. http://www.ross.ws/
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Houses With Tails |
| from the how-about-with-roots? dept. |
| posted by timothy on Wednesday November 26, @14:00 (The Internet)|
| http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/11/26/1834217 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
nnfiber writes "[0]What if home owners could also own their Internet
connection? Tim Wu, of New America Foundation and Derek Slater, Google's
Policy Analyst, say this can be a new [1]effective way to encourage
broadband deployment ?€? an important issue in 'America's economic growth.'
In his post, Timothy B. Lee says: 'That might sound like a crazy idea at
first blush, but Wu and Slater do a great job of explaining how it might
work. The key idea is "condominium fiber," an arrangement in which a
number of neighboring households pool their resources to install fiber to
all the homes in their neighborhoods. Once constructed, each home would
own its own fiber strand, while the shared costs of maintaining the
"trunk" cable from the individual homes to a central switching location
would be managed in the same way that condominium and homeowners'
associations currently manage the shared areas of condos and gated
communities.'"
Discuss this story at:
http://tech.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=08/11/26/1834217
Links:
0. http://www.circleid.com/posts/20081125_does_your_house_need_a_tail/
1. http://www.newamerica.net/publications/policy/homes_tails
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Massive Botnet Returns From the Dead To Spam On |
| from the late-entry-for-hallowe'en dept. |
| posted by timothy on Wednesday November 26, @15:07 (Spam) |
| http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/11/26/1930226 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
[0]CWmike writes "Gregg Keizer reports that the big spam-spewing Srizbi
botnet, shut down two weeks ago when McColo was shuttered, [1]has been
resurrected and is again under the control of criminals, security
researchers said today. As of late Tuesday, infected PCs were able to
successfully reconnect with new command-and-control servers, which are
now based in Estonia, said Fengmin Gong, chief security content officer
at FireEye. The comeback confirms what researchers noted last week,
[2]that Srizbi had a fallback strategy. So, in the end, that strategy
paid off for the criminals who control the botnet."
Discuss this story at:
http://it.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=08/11/26/1930226
Links:
0. http://www.computerworld.com/
1. http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9121678
2. http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9120727
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Lori Drew Trial Results In 3 Misdemeanor Convictions |
| from the justice-or-not dept. |
| posted by timothy on Wednesday November 26, @16:11 (The Courts) |
| http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/11/26/2036231 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
grassy_knoll writes "As a follow up to an earlier story, the [0]Lori Drew
'cyber-bullying' trial has resulted in [1]misdemeanor convictions."
grassy_knoll quotes from the AP story as carried by Salon: "The Los
Angeles federal court jury on Wednesday rejected felony charges of
accessing a computer without authorization to inflict emotional distress
on young Megan Meier. However, the jury found defendant Lori Drew guilty
of three counts of the lesser offense of accessing a computer without
authorization. The jurors could not reach a verdict on a conspiracy
count. Prosecutors said Drew violated the MySpace terms of service by
conspiring with her young daughter and a business assistant to create a
fictitious profile of a teen boy on the MySpace social networking site to
harass Megan. Megan, who had been treated for depression, hanged herself
in 2006 after receiving a message saying the world would be better
without her." Adds reader [2]gillbates: "She now faces up to 3 years in
jail and $300,000 in fines ?€? a troubling precedent for anyone who has
ever registered with a website under a pseudonym."
Discuss this story at:
http://yro.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=08/11/26/2036231
Links:
0. http://news.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/11/21/1539219&tid=123
1. http://www.salon.com/wires/ap/us/2008/11/26/D94MQ3O00_internet_suicide/index.html
2. http://www.angelfire.com/il/macroman
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Earliest LHC Restart Slated For Late Summer 2009 |
| from the at-least-it's-cheap dept. |
| posted by timothy on Wednesday November 26, @17:10 (Science) |
| http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/11/26/2135203 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
gaijinsr writes "The damage done in [0]what CERN calls the 'S34 Incident'
(and what other people call a major explosion in the cryogenics system)
is much more serious than originally admitted: The [1]earliest possible
restart date is late summer next year, but with some proposed
improvements to avoid repetitions of the incident, it looks more like
2010. They kept this pretty quiet up to now, not the kind of information
policy I would expect from CERN."
Discuss this story at:
http://science.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=08/11/26/2135203
Links:
0. http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/10/16/2344208&tid=14
1. http://indico.cern.ch/getFile.py/access?contribId=92&sessionId=6&resId=1&materialId=slides&confId=22937
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Blockbuster's Movie Download Box Runs Linux |
| from the but-does-it-run-emacs dept. |
| posted by timothy on Wednesday November 26, @18:06 (Media) |
| http://linux.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/11/26/2240208 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
DeviceGuru writes "In a better-late-than-never move, Blockbuster has
introduced a [0]video-on-demand (VOD) service accompanied by a 'free'
set-top box (STB). Like [1]TiVo, Roku's [2]Netflix box, and many other
modern Internet-enabled A/V gadgets, [3]Blockbuster's new VOD STB runs
Linux. But darn it; when will someone finally offer a reasonably-priced,
open-platform STB that serves as an A/V gateway to multiple
Internet-based services ?€? one consumer-friendly,
environmentally-designed, low-power gadget 'to rule them all,' if you
will."
Discuss this story at:
http://linux.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=08/11/26/2240208
Links:
0. http://www.deviceguru.com/new-blockbuster-vod-box-runs-linux/
1. http://tivo.com/
2. http://www.deviceguru.com/100-netflix-dvd-downloader-runs-linux/
3. http://www.blockbuster.com/ondemand
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